


The Helhorse

by Rook_Rabble



Category: Danish Folklore - Fandom
Genre: Animal Abuse, Animal Death, Bad Luck, Death, Headless, Sickness, ghost - Freeform, hellhorse, horse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-07-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 15:27:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20028076
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rook_Rabble/pseuds/Rook_Rabble
Summary: Beware, beware of the horse from hell, he who must not be seen or mentioned. It keeps the evil away from the inner walls of the church. Its mere presence can keeps the devil himself at bay, and with just one click of the loose horseshoes can make even Beelzebub jump in his running shoes. It keeps the church tower unshakable. Don't be shaken by the rickety appearance, for he would secure your passage to the kingdom of heaven.





	1. Terror in the graveyard

**Author's Note:**

> Phrases with underlined __________ comment.

**Helhorse**

The Helhorse is a ghost horse warning death, bad luck and illness, and perhaps the most iconic beast in Danish folklore. The Helhorse has three legs, where the foreleg is missing. Sometimes it also lacks the head, but in other cases it has burning or glowing eyes in deep eyeholes, and sometimes breathe fire. Its tail and mane are dirty and filtered, and it is so emaciated that it resembles a skeleton. The Helhorse can be known for its dead-like appearance, and white hide. Its lame gait is only becoming more creepy of the loose horseshoes that give it a dragging gait. The word '' Hel '' comes from the Nordic word hel = hell.

The Helhorse originates in the church context. In the past, no one wanted to be buried as the first on a newly built cemetery, because, according to the superstition, it meant bad luck to one's family. According to tradition, therefore, one first buried an animal, usually a living horse or a lamb, but only after having cut off one leg. In this way, the horse would be somewhere between life and death and be able to keep track of the souls of the dead. Another possible explanation is that the animal could not run away during the live burial. It is also used that if you build the church or the tower over the horse, the building would be perfectly unshakeable. In the sacristy in Roskilde Cathedral, there was a long stone with no inscription. Under this stone, a helhorse should be buried. ''And the old box stands there still''.

The Helhorse was called a ''church-grim''. Its mere presence might also protect the church building against the trolls and wickets that would prevent the construction and the safe transition between the living world and the world of the dead. A church-grim or (kirkevare) notified death and misfortune to those who came near or saw the animal (vare in Danish = warning). The Helhorse is '' psychic '' it could "see" and sense where there was someone who was about to die. It could then seek out the place and convey its message by chatting with the loose shoes. When the Helhorse often visited the sick, ''there is an old saying: of someone who had miraculously passed a serious illness: "He gave death a bushel of oat". Where death is the meaning of the old Helhorse. (In Danish: Han gav døden en skæppe havre)

If you were so unlucky to see the three-legged ghost, you were as good as sure that something terrible would happen. Many are said to have gone crazy or died by the mere sight of the Helhorse. The curse can either be aimed at the person who sees the horse or his relatives. The ghost is therefore also a frightening experience for the person who is often labeled for life of the meeting. It is no wonder, when you standing face to face with the reaper's undertaker.

**Just imagine seeing it headless:** A farmer was going home a late night, saw an old horse walking around freely. He sat up on the horse. It went through all the water holes. The man wanted it to go out on the roadside where it was more dry. When he had no reins, he hit the horse on the side of the head with a flat hand. The horse's head fell off! The man was so frightened that he fell down on the road. As he looked up, the horse was standing head on, staring at him with glowing eyes.

**The Helhorse in Roskilde cathedral**

It is said that a Helhorse is buried under Roskilde Cathedral, and perhaps it is the one who haunt in Hersegade ''Hersestreet''. In any case, many have claimed to have heard the limping horse of hell wandering around at Hersegade at night. On full moon nights, the Helhorse limp steps can be heard in the cobbled streets. Often the sound is the only thing you hears when it walks past a place in the dark or it shows itself as a silhouette against the moonlighted horizon.


	2. The Helhorse in Århus / The white horse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Phrases with underlined __________ comment.
> 
> Don't look out the window!  
Ghost on the road

**The Helhorse in Århus**

At the cathedral cemetery in Aarhus there was a Helhorse that sometimes appeared. It was once seen by a man who had his windows out toward the cemetery. One evening. When he was sitting in his living room, he exclaimed: ''What kind of a horse is going out there? Well, that would be the Helhorse, replied another man visiting him. "Then I'll surely take a closer look at it, "Code red!!!, ''BAD IDEA'', the badtest idea of the !!CENTURY!! PLEASE Stoooop'':( continued the man. He got up and went to the window. As he was now looking out the window, he suddenly became pale as a corpse, but he did not tell the guests or anyone else what he had seen. Shortly afterwards he began to scrape, and soon he died.

**The White Horse**

A little girl was supposed to pick up her father from work one evening. The father was called Bertel Trasborg, and they lived on the Egtved area near Vejle. On the way home they were going down a deep hole road called ''Smalporten''. Here, the little girl suddenly grabbed the father's shirt and pulled him away from the road. He got annoyed and hit her and shouted, "Let go of my shirt." But the little girl kept moving in the father's shirt until they had come a little further. Then she said, "Dad, didn't you see the big white horse coming toward us?" "No, he hadn't seen anything. When they came home, the girl got sick and was immediately put to bed.

'' Let's hope she too can give death a bushel of oats ''


End file.
